Given a choice, which yacht would you buy?

I had a meeting with a yacht surveyor in Ft. Lauderdale yesterday. I asked him the question below and he took almost 15 minutes to answer. This gave me the idea to pose the same question to the most qualified group on the planet...

If you and your family are in a 75 foot yacht 40 miles from your destination and you came across a freak storm, which of the yachts below would you rather be in? Please rank in order of preference

Azimut, Ferretti, Horizon, Fairline, Princess/Viking, Sunseeker.

You may add but not delete from the list. I know I made several assumptions, please assume thay are all new yachts and the same size.

If it was my yacht, it could be anyone of those. If you have not made yourself and the yacht prepared for such events, you should not go out there at all. And if you reverse the situation, which yacht could sink in a freak storm with a bad captain, all of them...!

The boats you picked are all well known production boats. What can happen to any boat can happen to them as well.

Let´s say you buy a second hand boat that has been sitting for a year in a marina. The chance is that the fuel tanks are dirty in the bottom and with a storm all dirt goes into and block your filters and you end up drifting for a while. Not good, but you should have found out before departure.

Or you buy a brand new boat and want to pick it up as soon as possible, perhaps adding options that are almost not fitted when you arrive. So you are leaving without a real shake down and end up in that storm where something goes wrong.

I think you should be really familiar with your boat, the waters and your own capacity before going out on offshore trips. The brand has little to do with safety, if the boat is well maintained.

I completely agree with this. The quality brands are pretty close to one another when it comes to sea-worthiness, some have + or - in one area or another. A lot of "debate" over these brands comes down to preferences.

Maintenance and preparation would be the things I would be worried about. Most boats functionally can deal with more storm than its passengers can.

Now if you were to ask what you would rather be in, a displacement boat, planing boat, sail boat, multi-hull, etc...

AMG said:

The boats you picked are all well known production boats. What can happen to any boat can happen to them as well.

Let´s say you buy a second hand boat that has been sitting for a year in a marina. The chance is that the fuel tanks are dirty in the bottom and with a storm all dirt goes into and block your filters and you end up drifting for a while. Not good, but you should have found out before departure.

Or you buy a brand new boat and want to pick it up as soon as possible, perhaps adding options that are almost not fitted when you arrive. So you are leaving without a real shake down and end up in that storm where something goes wrong.

I think you should be really familiar with your boat, the waters and your own capacity before going out on offshore trips. The brand has little to do with safety, if the boat is well maintained.

I recently some some time helping an owner shopping in the 65 - 70' range and spent a few days crawling around a lot of boats, not new but 4 to 6 years old, including some in the original post. It was extremely educating...

i've seen some amazing things from builders you would consider "reputable"...

like an Horizon literally covered with stress cracks at the bow and at the stern... a Viking with numerous stress cracks near the flybridge overhang and with not a single door that closed properly... Now these boats may have been abused by their owners or were they just not built to withstand heavier seas?

3 Grand Alaskans with ungasketed and undogged stern lockers (just a $0.50 plastic home depot cabinet catch) that were opened into the lazarette... nice, isnt it? you loose power, drift in heavy seas, the locker opens and water gets in the laz.

it all comes down to details... clogged fuel filters can be as easy as flipping the valve but if you can't get to the racors because they are on the other side of the ER and you can't get to them because there isn't enough space between the hot engines...you're not going to have nice day...

And does anyone not feel that the trend for reverse sheer and lousy access to the bow isnt disturbing? those big sea rays maybe stylish but why the heck would you want a low bow if you ever intend on venturing offshore?

Lousy access to the bow? take many recent Azimut and the deck that slopes down all the way to the bow... no place to stand safely in anything but a protected harbor. We all know that windlasses never jam, right? so when you need to drop anchor in a hurry before drifting to shore in just 5' sea and cant safely go unjam the rode... style will not be that important.

and don't get me started with large windows near the water line, under the rub rail....

Each boat has to be looked at individually... every builder has had some years or models that were not as good as others and it takes very little to turn a good boat into a not so good boat. I always laugh when the first thing many brokers point out are the electric flat screens, air doors and other gadgets. The first thing I look at is the ER and the Laz...

Now if i was going to add something to the list and put it at the top? Hatteras, especially the pre euro styled models (up to a few years ago). They may not be as fast, they may not be as stylish and sexy... but you know these hulls will bring you home.

Here we go again, you are 100 miles from shore and in a freak storm, Which do you rather be in, a full displacement, semi-displacement, planing hull or a sailboat. Assuming 100 feet and a geat captain.

Since you don't pick the boat and head for the storm I'd be on the boat I was on and be the best captain I'd ever been. To date that's always been the right boat and when it's not it just doesn't matter. I've been invited to dine with Davy Jones many a time. When the right time comes to accept the invitation I doubt it will matter if I'm in a rowboat or on a carrier. I once met a man as he entered Ft. Lauderdale aboard his 8' sailboat. The last land he stepped on land was in Southampton, England. Doubt anyone would have considered that the right boat.

Since you don't pick the boat and head for the storm I'd be on the boat I was on and be the best captain I'd ever been. To date that's always been the right boat and when it's not it just doesn't matter. I've been invited to dine with Davy Jones many a time. When the right time comes to accept the invitation I doubt it will matter if I'm in a rowboat or on a carrier. I once met a man as he entered Ft. Lauderdale aboard his 8' sailboat. The last land he stepped on land was in Southampton, England. Doubt anyone would have considered that the right boat.

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I talked to a guy in Annapolis one time that had sailed around the world in a 24 foot sailboat, not sure who was crazier or the better sailor.

I had a meeting with a yacht surveyor in Ft. Lauderdale yesterday. I asked him the question below and he took almost 15 minutes to answer. This gave me the idea to pose the same question to the most qualified group on the planet...

If you and your family are in a 75 foot yacht 40 miles from your destination and you came across a freak storm, which of the yachts below would you rather be in? Please rank in order of preference

Azimut, Ferretti, Horizon, Fairline, Princess/Viking, Sunseeker.

You may add but not delete from the list. I know I made several assumptions, please assume thay are all new yachts and the same size.

Click to expand...

Of the yachts you have posted, I would probably feel most comfortable on a Horizon in heavy weather. She has a deeper vee configuration, she has a proud bow, and the Horizon are more of a go to sea yacht than the others that are mentioned. That being said, she doesn't perform like the others. Regardless of what you've heard, Horizon is more of a cruising motoryacht as opposed to a performance yacht.